Package holder



Oct. 16, 1934. s. w. STANYAN PACKAGE HOLDER Filed Nov. 4, 1951 4 Sheets-Sheet 1 Oct. 1 6, 1934. s. w. STANYAN PACKAGE HOLDER Filed Nov. 4, 1931 4 Sheets-Sheet 2 iii Oct. 1.6, 1934. 5 w STANYAN 1,975,811

PACKAGE HOLDER Filed Nov. 4, 1931 4 Sheets-Sheet 5 Oct. 16, 1934. s. w. STANYAN PACKAGE HOLDER 4 Sheets-Sheet 4 Filed Nov. 4, 1951 Patented Oct. 16, 1934 umr o STATES whit PTEN

PACKAGE HOLDER Application November 4, 1931, Serial No. 573%025 2 Claims.

This invention relates to holding means for facilitating the packaging of boxes, as in preparation for shipping them to the user.

In the forwarding of boxes, for example those in which shoes are packed, from their makerto shoe-manufacturers, it is customary to close each box by the application of its cover, assemble the closed boxes in convenient groups, usually made up of plural series placed side by side, which groups will vary in accordance with the size of the boxes, apply protective corner-pieces of pasteboard, and tie-the boxes together with cords extending about the packages over the cornerpieces. The assembled boxes, in their loose condition before tying, are extremely difficult to handle without displacement, much trouble is experienced in keeping the corner-pieces in the correct relation, and, since there is no'means for effectively compacting the groups of boxes before the ties are applied, the package tends to loosen and may fall apart in later handling; Moreover, if it is desired to employ a tying machine for the application of the cord, the necessity for assembling the groups of boxes at the machine, to avoid their transfer in a loose condition, nullifies the advantage which might be gained by the rapidity of action of the machine. It is an object of my invention to so hold boxes that they may be assembled rapidly and accurately in groups of the chosen numbers, protective corner-pieces associated with them and retained in place with certainty, the groups so compacted that the loosening of the tie or ties will be avoided, and such ties applied with a capacity for free manipulation of the package and without danger of displacing its elements.

To this end, my invention provides a novel holder in which boxes may be packaged. Each holder has a bottom-wall, from which rise pairs of opposite side-walls, one of said side-walls being movable toward and from the opposite wall and being herein shown as mounted to slide upon the intermediate walls. Aftera group of boxes has been arranged in a holder, the movement of the end-wall in contact with the contained boxes forces all the boxes and their covers together, and, if plural series are being assembled, alines these series with one another. The boxes are thus made ready for tying. A desirable manner of forming my improved holder is by intersecting wires secured together, with the movable wall of sheet-metal and having guide-portions sliding upon the intermediate walls.

In the accompanying drawings,

Fig. 1 is a diagrammatic top plan view of a packaging system in which my improved holder may be used;

Fig. 2 shows the holder in broken perspective.

Fig. 3 is a perspective view of the holder and contents supported upon its rack at a package assembling station;

Fig. 4 is a similar View of the receiving and holder-supports at a transferring station, together with the more closely associated elements;

Fig. 5 shows the supports of Fig. 4 in side elevation; and

Fig. 6 is a perspective view of the collecting and distributing conveyors of the system.

Referring to Fig. 1, we have at D a series of operating stations, shown as four in number, at which boxes and their covers are received separately, and the former closed by the application of the latter. The boxes may be delivered to the stations by chutes 10 supplied from some such source as a setting-up machine, and are received upon operators tables 12. Covers may be brought to the tables manually in stacks. Beside each table 12 is a rack 14 for supporting holders H, in which groups of boxes are successively assembled to form packages, As best shown in Fig. 3, each rack presents the supported holder to the operator in an inclined position, to render it convenient for the introduction of the boxes. The holder H is particularly illustrated in Fig. 2. It is in the form of a rather shallow open tray, with a bottomand opposite pairs of side-walls. The bottom-wall and three of the side-walls may consist of spaced wires 16 welded together at their intersections. Bars 17, 1'7 are shown as secured to the bottom-wall, their lower surfaces lying below the other elements of the holder. They furnish runners which facilitate advance over supporting surfaces. The fourth side-wall 18 is preferably of sheet-metal and arranged to move upon the walls between it and the opposite sidewall, so one of the dimensions of the holder may be varied. I have shown the wall 18 as provided with angular end-portions 20, 20 carrying pairs of lugs 22, 22, through which pass the upper and lower wires of the adjacent walls. The outward movement of the member 18 may be limited by contact of the inner lugs with Vertical wires of the side-walls. The holders H are made in various sizes, the dimensions of which correspond to different packages to be made up. As appears in x:

Fig. 3, three series, each of eight boxes B with their cover C, are to furnish a complete group which is to form a package. Consequently, the fixed dimension or width of the holder, which extends upwardly as positioned upon the rack, is

such that it will admit three boxes side by side, while the length of the holder, lying across the rack, will permit it to receive readily the series of eight box-es when said holder is expanded by movement of the wall 18 away from the opposite wall. When this movable wall is forced in the opposite direction, the box and covers aresettled together, each series not only being compacted, but also alined with the companion series.

Spaced from the ends of the racks 14 to furnish a passage and arranged for convenient access by the operators at all the stations D is an upper conveyor 30 and a lower conveyor 32, these preferably lying one above another. Both conveyors may be of the roller-flight type, and, as appears in Fig. 6 of the drawings, the conveyor 30 is inclined downwardly to the right, while the conveyor 32 is inclined to the left, articles placed upon them being advanced by gravity in opposite directions. Each operator at a station D closes boxes with their covers to form upon the table 12 stacks, in the present instance three in number and each including eight closed boxes, and places the stacks as formed in a holder I-I upon the rack 14. The covers of all the boxes are parallel to the same walls of the holder and preferably all face in the same direction. The depth of the holder is such that the ends of the boxes project above its side-walls, preferably by somewhat more than half their length. The entire group of covered boxes being thus assembled, the holder and its contents are taken from the rack and placed upon the conveyor 30, which is for the use of all the stations D.

Moving down the conveyor 30, the filled holders H from all the stations D arrive at the upper extremity of a conveyor 34. This latter conveyor may be of the same form as the conveyors 30 and 32, and extends substantially at right angles to and inclined downwardly from the conveyor 30. At the juncture of the conveyors 30 and 34 are stations E, at which one or more operators may work, depending upon the rate at which the filled holders are received. At E there is slipped between each corner of the holder and the boxes therein an angular protective piece P, which may be of pasteboard (see Figs. 1 and 4). This having been accomplished, each holder is turned and started down the conveyor 34, being arrested at the lower end by a preceding holder or by a terminal bumper 36.

At the lower incoming extremity of the conveyor 34 is a station F, at which is preferably located a tying machine 38. The structure of the machine is not important, it merely being necessary that it is adapted to encircle with a retaining cord or the like a group of boxes of the magnitude to be dealt wth by my system and tie or secure such a cord. The operator at F, before applying a tie T, presses the movable wall 18 of the holder toward the opposite wall. This simultaneously compacts all three series of boxes longitudinally and alines them with one another transversely. In this form, and still in the holder, the group of boxes is tied by the machine 38 over the pieces P and placed upon the outgoing end of a rollerflight or other conveyor 40 leading from station F to a station G.

Station G has a receiving support or table 42, to which the conveyor 40. delivers, and an adjacent support in the form of an inclined rack 44 for a holder h. To control the receipt of the holders by the table 42, there is associated with the adjacent end of the conveyor 40 a stop-lever 46 (Fig. 4), a portion 48 of which projects normally into the path of the holders, it being thus held by a spring 50. The stop-portion 48 may be lowered, to permit the holders and their contents to pass to the table 42, by a treadle 52 joined to the lever 46 by a link 54, and yieldably raised by a spring 56. A holder having been delivered to the table 42, the action of the operator depends upon the size of the package. It has been hereinbefore assumed that a large group of twentyfour boxes was being packaged. That being true, a second tie t, encircling the package at right angles to the first tie T, is to be applied. In preparation for this, the operator at station G has a holder h. This holder, which appears in Figs. 4 and 5, may generally resemble the holder H, diiiering chiefly in its dimensions. Its length may be the same, but its width corresponds to the length of the boxes, being adapted to receive, as to its transverse dimensions, a single series. Its sidewalls rise above this contained series to a plane somewhat below the center of the second series included in the package. There may be formed in its movable end-wall 18, near the corners, finger-holes 58, the purpose of which will be stated later. This holder h is placed upon the supporting rack 44, positioned by cleats 62 and with its open top inclined toward the table 42. A section 64 of this table toward the rack 44 is shown as hinged at 66 near its center to the fixed portion of the table, and held normally in a horizontal position by a counterweight 68. The operator at G removes the package with its single tie T from its holder H, and places said holder upon the distributing conveyor 32, the upper end of which is adjacent to position G. From the conveyor 32 the holders may be taken for use at any one of the stations D. The package is placed upon the table 42 and its section 64, against an end-cleat '70 which alines it with the opening of the holder h upon the rack 44. Then the operator presses down the section 64 against the resistance of its counter-weight, and the package slides into the holder h, the hinged section returning automatically to its horizontal position. The assembled holder h and package are thereupon transferred by the operator to station E upon the upper extremity of the conveyor 34, which is close at hand.

At station E, a second set of protective pieces 11 of pasteboard is inserted between the corners of the holder and the boxes, they extending about the center of the second series. If the edges of the boxes of the first or lower series in the holder catch the ends of the pieces and tend to interfere with their introduction, the operator may free them by pressing the fingers through the holes 58 in the wall 18. Carrying the boxes with the second set of corner-pieces, the holder h is released by the operator at E and allowed to descend the conveyor 34 to station F.

At F, the operator compacts the contents of the holder h as he did that of the holder 11, though here the direct pressure and alining eifect is only upon the two lower series, the upper series, which is entirely outside the side-walls of the holder, being acted upon through the tension produced upon the previously applied tie T. With the boxes thus arranged, the operator encircles the center series outside the protective pieces p with a tie t and puts the holder containing the package upon the conveyor 40, which delivers it to the table 42.

Seeing that the package is now completed, the operator at station G removes it from the holder and places it upon a chute '72 at the end of the table. Down this chute it slides to a conveyor '74,

which may be of the endless-belt type, by which it may be carried to a stock-room or to a shipping room. The operator retains the holder h for use at station G. Were the group of boxes a small one, requiring but a single tie, it would pass through the operating circuit but once, the operators at stations D employing the holders H and the operator at G separating the tied packages from the holders and transferring the latter, upon their first receipt, to conveyor 32, the packages being placed upon the chute '72.

Having described my invention, what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States is:

1. A holder for packaging boxes, said holder having, in combination, a bottom-wall and pairs of opposite side-walls rising therefrom, the bottom-wall and three of the side-walls being formed by intersecting wires secured to one another, the fourth side-wall being of sheet-metal with angular ends overlapping the intermediate side-walls, and guide-portions of the fourth side-wall sliding upon wires of said intermediate walls.

2. A holder for packaging boxes, said holder consisting of a shallow tray having a bottom-wall formed of spaced wires and pairs of opposite sidewalls rising therefrom, one of said walls having angular ends extending parallel to the adjacent pair of side-walls and mounted to move thereon, and runners secured to the under side of the bottom-wall and separating the wires from a surface upon which the holder may be supported.

STARR W. STANYAN. 

